Introduction
Imagine you and your family are loading the car to go on a summer trip.
- Where are you going?
- How long will it take to get there?
- Where will you stay?
- How long are you staying?
- What will you do once you get there?
Usually, your family will have a plan for the vacation that answers all of these questions. But what if your family didn't have a plan? What if, instead, your family randomly picked a direction to drive and just drove until everyone got tired. Then what? Try to find a hotel room to sleep? Does this make any sense? Of course it does not, but there are people who approach their financial lives in this same manner – no thought, no direction.
In this lesson, you will learn about common financial goals and write your own financial goals for the future.
Following successful completion of this lesson, students will be able to...
- Differentiate between short-term, medium-term and long-term financial goals.
- Write SMART financial goals.
Enduring Understandings
- Each person has their own set of wants and needs based on their interests and life situation that should be accounted for in their spending plan (budget).
- Financial choices will have benefits, costs and future consequences.
The above objectives correspond with the Alabama Course of Study: Career Preparedness standards: 15.